Some photos of the new blue Olmo which will replace the blue Gazelle as my new commuting bike. Come summer, come winter.

In honor of David Litts epic Paris-Brest-Paris adventure that just ended unfortunately, it will get a small sticker reading „Frenay-Sur-Sarthe – 1.039km“ on the toptube, overlapping the „San Remo“ mark.

This was a tricky built-up. Uwe from Studio Brisant did some repair of the paint work and I had to ask for assistance with Velosport for the headset and the bottom bracket. I am still not happy with the pedals.

The origin of most of the parts is the Peugeot Galibier that I built-up in winter this year. Most of the parts are Shimano Golden Arrow (105 level of the Eighties) but I decided to exchange the brake calipers with Shimano 600 6200type which are much, much better in terms of brake performance. The Peugeot frame is now sold and I know it in good hands.

This bike has a lot of stuff attache to it, like speed meter, bottle cage, saddle bag, pump and some is going to be added additionally: lights and mud guards. This may not be looking good on a classic bike, however this is a commuting bike and I will be in need of all this stuff.

Last weekend I had the chance to travel to Den Haag/Netherlands and to visit the bike shop of John van Herwerden, the maker of Duell bikes.

Since last year Hiroshi from C Speed is importing Duell bikes. Duell bikes have quite some racing history in the Netherlands and are made out of steel. Not any steel, but high tensile strength Dedacciai 14.4 and 16.5 steel profiles, TIG welded. We are not speaking about pure retro steel frames but about modern applications. The frame builder Jan van Daale has a good feeling for the design and for the painting design. Almost all frames that Hiroshi has sold so far are customized.

It has been a while since I had been in the Netherlands and I enjoyed the local food such as french fries in buckets with heaps of Mayonnaise, Ketchup and onions on top – Frites special.

John has a nice shop with along tradition not to far away from the city centre of Den Haag. TJ Bruder lived in the area and found about it first before anybody else. The shop is rather big, in particular if compared with the typical Japanese shop. The focus is on modern racing bikes, such as Specialized. The highlight is nevertheless the display of the Duell bikes (for the normal customer) and two old bikes equipped with the most exquisite Campagnolo groupsets (50th years anniversary edition).

I got John to wear the Positivo Espresso jersey and took some photos in his shop. We talked about cycling. Of course, what else? It is nice to meet nice people through a common hobby.

Yesterday I sold the Pescarolo bike. No, not to the guy on the photo. This was the first sale of a bike I built up new completely as opposed to single frames and components I have sold before. The Pescarolo isn’t a top of the line bike, neither does it fit my size (55 cm), but still I was a little bit sad. This could become a repeated process in the months to come. I am currently building up a blue Olmo bike that will become the replacement for the blue Gazelle I bought last year. And then we will see.

Despite the fact that I was raised in the sixties and seventies, my parents didn’t own a television set for quite a while. I was forced to go to my grandparents who were living next door when I liked to watch TV. From this angle the bike almost looks like a stealth fighter plane.

My favourite programs as a kid were „Krempoli„, „“Stanley Beamish, „Mini-Max“ and the Augsburger Puppenkiste, a marionette theater that would make any kid of today asleep within 10 seconds. Michael Ende, Ottfried Preussler and Max Kruse all wrote famous pieces for the programm and one I remember in particular were the stories about Urmel. And the charcter I liked most was the sea elephant. One day, when I retire, I want to become like the sea elephant from Urmel. So this is perhaps why the name OLMO, which is or was one of the famous Italian steel frame builders of the sixties, seventies and eighties, is high in my personal list. When I started to become interested in old steel bikes a long time ago (autumn 2010, to be precise), the first bike I fell in love with was the Moser Leader AX evolution This is a nice frame but it very hard to get them in large sizes and . now it is somewhat too modern for me with TIG welded joints and unifork. The second bike I fell in love with was an Olmo. I now own too Olmo frames (I have sold the Faggin and the Peugeot in the meantime to finance them). and the blue one from the Nineties will become my commuting bike and the white „Olmo from the Ice“ will become the showpiece. Still a lot of choices to be made, but here are some photos showing the actual status after working on the bike today. The frame was rusty and in poor conditions when I got it first from Vienna. It was grit-blasted and painted and I bought a set of new decals. Almost every component has a special story. Note the leather grips on the track handle bar, the Shimano 600 AX aero brakes and the Arabesque shifters. There’s so much to write – but another time when the bike is ready. Enjoy the photos.

Apart from leather grips as on the Olmo handle bar, there are also various other places where leather can be used to upgrade the functionality of a bike.

This application is in particular handy for people living in the „Viertel“ („The quarter“) of Bremen. Sure, it should include Becks (Greenies) bottles instead of Pilsener Urquell. The Viertel is the part of the town where it is considered uncool to walk around without carrying a bottle of beer.

Before leaving one’s home, one need to check: Key in the pocket? Spare change? Mobile phone? Bottle of beer? I used to live there in the summer of 2010 close to a supermarket that is opened until midnight. Quite rare in Germany still. But basically not necessary as well: Some crates of Becks placed in front of the cashier would have created the same turnover after 8 PM.